Closure for bottles or jars



Oct. 11

1927 A. w. BOOTH ET AL CLOSURE FOR BOTTLES 0R JARS Filed Sept. 13. 1926 INVENTOkS. ammo w. fa W11 (lmzm fa. Wyn

A TTORNE Y.

Patented a. 11, 1927.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ANNA. W. BOOTH AND GEORGE W. BOOTH, O1 BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

CLOSURE FOR BOTILEfl OR J'AB IS.

Application fled September 18, 1926. Serial No. 135,186.

Our invention relates to improvements in :losu'res for bottles or jars, and has particularreference to an improved construction of closure of the metal cap or crown 5 t e. p v 4 hian metal caps or crowns have been devised or sealing bottles and jars wherein a sealing medium is placed within the crown and the crown and 1ts sealing medium then applied to the mouth of the bottle or jar by first applying suflicient seating pressure to embed .the lip or mouth of the bottle or jar in the, sealing medium, and while maintaining that pressure, stretching the flange of the cap or crown down around the mouth, and then contracting the lower edge of that flange, whether it be corrugated or plain, into locking engagement with some form of shoulder on the bottle or. jar below the mouth. I

-In all of these devices that have come to our attention, the capping or crowning operation has included a step that effects a crowning operation. The change in sha 'e,

and the stretching here referred to are t e change and stretch that takes place in the top of the crown or cap where it is brought into. sealing contact with the lip and mouth of the bottle or jar, and does not refer to thechange which takes place at the lower edge of the crown-flange where the locking engagement with the bottle takes place;

Disadvantages arise because of these shapechanging and stretchingoperations in the cap or crown after the same has been formed,

in that the metal of the cap or crown, which 9 has previously during its formation been subjected to stress and stretch, must be of a quality and weight to permit these additional changes during the crowning operatiori to be made, and the pressure of the capping mechanism must be suficient to efiect that shape-changing and stretching.

It is obvious that when these operations take place, the. cap orcrown is seated on the change in the shape of the capor'crown bottle and pressure necessary to effect those operations must therefore be withstood by the bottle-and the result is that bottles are frequently broken.

By means of our invention, we avoid the shape-changing operation of the crown after In carrying -out our invention; we prefer 7.

to make use of a crown or cap, which, in general appearance, resembles the corrugated flanged crown or cap with which the public is familiar, but it is not essential to our invention that the lower edge of'the crown or cap be corrugated.

Our invention therefore has among itsobjects to provide an improved construction of crown or cap which shall primarily be formed to correspond in shape to the par- 30 ticular contour of the lip and mouth of the bottle or iar to which it is to be applied, substantially as though the crown or cap has been originally formed with the mouth and lip of the bottle or far as a mould, and 8 having first formed the crown or ca so it will accurately fit and correspond w1th the contour of the seating surfaces it is to engage, very little pressure is necessary to bring the cap and bottle together to efiect a seal, and no stretching of the metal of the crown is required, so that after the crown or cap has been seated on the mouth of the bottle ment.- 7 o Furthermore, by means of our lmproved construction, we are able to employ extremely thin and cheap sealing substances in the crowns or caps, and for many liquids, are able to eflect a tight seal through mere coatings of specially-prepared varnishes, gums and like substances on the interior of the crowns or caps.

structures being in vertical section to show that the contour of the crown before its application to the bottle neck and the contour of the mouth and lip of the bottle or jar are counterparts and exactly alike.

Fig. 4 illustrates the bottle or ar and the contour-shaped crown in sectional detail, the two having been loosely brought together and in readiness to be pressed together and then looked.

Fig. 5 shows the two devices in locked I relation, and

Fig. 6 illustrates the crown as loosely seated on a bottle and having its skirt or flange-edge in readiness to be crimped under 7 the locking shoulder on the bottle.

Referring to the drawings, and particularly Figs. 3, 4 and 5 thereof, the container 10, in this instance is presumed to be a jar such as is commonly employed by dairies for use in the delivery of milk and cream to customers.

In this instance, we prefer to show a, form of jar which dairies are using to a reat extent and which are now sealed by internal paper or cardboard disks. To provide a support for such disks, those jars have an annular internal shoulder 11 inside of the jar-mouth, which shoulder however while shown by us, performs no function and plays no part in our present invention,

but is shown merely because it is present in v a large percentage of milk jars now in use.

It is also immaterial to our present invention as to the precise shape of the lip 12, mouth 13 and the annular circumferential outer surface 14 around the bottle orar-mouth, but it is desirable that some form of bulge, shoulder or protuberance 15, be

rovided on the exterior of the bottle or" jar below the mouth 13, in order that the ower portion of the skirt of the crown or cap may be contracted or crimped into looking engagement to hold the crown seated and prevent its displacement. Q

The crown 16 is formed of comparatively thin and cheap metal, and in accordance with our invention, when we form these crowns, we rovide the same with a comparatively' s allow central concavity or depression 17 which is bounded by an annular convexity 18 around the top of the crown or cap.

This annular convexity 18, on the upper side of the crown or cap-top, produces 'an annular concavity 19, at the under side of the crown or cap, which concavity is located above the central convex surface 20 at the or skirt may, in so far as our inventionis concerned, he plain, or it may have corrugations 22, as in the well-known crowns that are in such general usetoday.

One of the leading featuresin our invention resides in the fact that regardless of the precise curvatures at the lip, mouth and circumference of the container, the interior shape and contour'of the crown or cap as it is formed, and prior to its engagement or contact with the container, is a duplicate of the contour and shape of the lip and mouth of that container so that when the two are brought loosely together, they will accurately fit one with the other. In other words, in accordance with our invention, the interior contour of the crown or cap from the convex center upwardly, under and around the concavity 19, is an exact duplication or counterpart of the curvature or contour of the container-end where the closure is to seat, so that the two are counterparts and will accurately fit together at their coacting sealing surfaces without distortion, change in shape or stretching of-the metal crown vor cap.

It will also be noted that by providing the concave central-portion 17, and shaping the crown from that depression outwardly and around to the skirt or flange 21, that we effect a sealing surface from a point on the inner side of the mouth below the lip 12, of the container, up and around the mouth 13 to the outer side of the said container. j

The interior surface of the crown is preferably coated with a special varnish, gum or equivalent substance, or it may be entirely lined with a thin paper or other substance 23 of uniform thickness as indicated by the heavy line at the under side of the cap, shown in the sectional views in the drawing.

In Fig. 6 of the drawing, the invention is the same but'the contour of the lip, mouth and neck of the bottle 24, is slightly diflerent from that in the jar 10, of Figs. 3, 4 and 5. In this Fig. Q," the conventional locking-shoulder 25, is formed on the bottle- .neck for the engagement of the skirt or flange-edge 26 when the latter is contracted.

In this Fig. 6, the crown is shown as-having a contour precisely like, and corresponding to, the contour of the bottle neck at its mouth, and while the crown is shown as seated thereon, its flan e or skirt-edge 26 has not been contracte or crimped into locking'engagement with the locking shoulder on the exterior of the neck.

From the foregoing explanation, it is believed to be clear that in accordance with our invention, we primarily form crowns or caps which fit the sealing surface of the container without necessitat ng a change of shape or a stretching of the metal,-consequently we avoid the necessity of applying undue pressures to effect a seal between the crown or cap and the bottle-mouth and we therefore avoid breakage of bottles that frequently occur under pressures that have heretofore been necessary to bring the crown and bottle mouth into sealing contact.-

Moreover, when crowns or caps are seated by pressure and stretching, they y1eld or rebound somewhat when the pressure of the crownin mechanism is removed, and frequently t 0 yield is sufficient to cause leaks, whereas by seatin because of accuracy offit, as we do, on y enough pressure is necessary to hold the crown down while the crimping or contracting operation takes place and, there being no stretchof the metal, there is no rebound or return yield when the pressure is removed. 1

Another advantage arising from our invention is that as no stretching takes place when applyin the crown or cap to seat it, removal is e ected without disturbing the sealing contour, and after the crown has been removed, from a milk bottle for example, it may be readily snapped onto the bottle and used re eatedl until the entire contents of the bott e are ispensed.

By forming the crown with the central concavo-convex ortion, we not only gain the advantage of extending the sealing sur face well around and slightly in the bottle mouth, but when milk is pasteurized and its tem erature raised, a pressure isproduced in the ottle and as the central portion is of a concavo-convex shape, this portion will act as a diaphragm and yield outwardly, be-

cause of the thin character of the metal, and will compensate for the internal pressure and thus provide a relief from the strains that would otherwise be placed on the looking flange. F

From the foregoing explanation, it will be noted that a most important feature of our invention resides in the fact thatwe produce a contour-shaped crown, which is a counterpart of the shape and contour of the surfaces it is to engage, and thatthe shaping of the crown is done prior to its application to the bottle or jarso that no change of v ing a mouth with a closure seating surface extending from the inner side of the container adjacent to the mouth around and over the latter and down on the outer side thereof, of a sheet metal closure which prior to its applicatioh to the containeris formedto produce a contour on its under side that is a counterpart of the seating surface on' the container with which it is to engage, so the seating surface on the under side of the closure will fit the seating surface on the container when the closure is laid upon the container whereby to avoid-stretching the metal of the closure to effect a seating of the closure on the mouth of the container, and means on the closure and container for locking the two with their contour counterpart seatin surfaces in sealing contact.

2. he combination with a container having a mouth with a closure seating surface extending from the inner side ofthe container adjacent to the mouth around and over the latter and down on the outer side thereof, of a sheet metal closure havin an annular concavity on its under side w ich annular concavity, prior to its application to the container is formed to produce a contour at said under side that, is a counterpart of theseating surface on thecontainer with which the closure is to engage, a sealing medium in the annular concavity of the con.- tour-shaped closure which sealing medium prior to its engagement with the container is also shaped to produce a contour that is a counterpart of the seating surface on the conflange and an annular concavity at its under side with a depressed central portion bounded by said annular concavity said crown having a sealing medium which is sha ed to correspond to the shape of the annuliir concavity and also to the shape of the depressed central portion of the crown said annular asheet metal crown having an annular concavity in both the crown and the sealing seating surface on the container without medium being formed prior to the applica stretching the metal to effect -a sealing seat. tion of the closure to a, bottle or jar so the In testimony whereof w afiix our signa- 10 closure 'and its sealing medium will aocutures.

5' r'ately fit the seating surfaces of the contaiiler when laid upon the, latter whereby ANNA W. BOOTH. the crown and its sealing medium will fit the GEORGE W. BOOTH. 

